MY HOUSING DISCRIMINATION CASE

MY HOUSING DISCRIMINATION CASEBy Uriah J. Fields

My Reflection

In light of the racial comments made by Donald Sterling, owner of the NBA Clippers, and the revelation to many that he and his wife had refused to rent apartments to African Americans that resulted in him and his wife reaching settlement to pay $2.7 million, the largest ever obtained by the Justice Department in a housing discrimination case, it is incmbent on me to share a statement regarding a housing discrimination case I had in Los Angeles that involved another Beverly Hills couple who refused to rent to African Americans, as many apartment owners did at that time.

We can see as my housing discrimination case lawyer said in his letter to me a half century ago when referencing my victorious suit, "If this were done the amount of discrimination in existence in housing would greatly diminish by my opinion." Let all concerned today take heed!

After I, Uriah J. Fields, won my housing discrimination case against Mr. & Mrs. David Klein of Beverly Hills, California...and a settelment was reached in 1964 under the penalty of the Unruh Civil Rights Act of California..., "thus the tacitly admitting their guilt in this instance," my Attorney George Baltaxe, in the closing paragraph of his final letter to me writes: "I believe in this case your position has been completely vindicated. I hope that it will serve as some sort of impetus on the Negroes of the communtiy to utilize their rights under the law. If this were done the amount of discrimination in existence in housing would greatly dinimish by my opinion."- Attorney George Baltaxe

Note: My housing discrimination case was four years before the Civil Rights Act of 1968, commonly called the Fair Housing Act, and the last of the Civil Rights Acts to be the law of the land, was enacted in April, 1968, one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1964 California was one of only a few States that had an anti-discrimination law. -Uriah J. Fields